Brazil is on its way to having the largest trade surplus with China ever, breaking the 2020 record, when exports surpassed imports by USD 33.6 billion.
This year, from January to June, the trade balance with China is positive for Brazil in USD 24.3 billion, close to the surplus of USD 28.7 billion in the whole of last year, according to data from the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex), of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Commerce (MDIC).
Total Sino-Brazilian exchanges (export + import) reached a record USD 150.2 billion last year, with Brazilian exports amounting to USD 89.4 billion and Chinese sales to USD 60.7 billion.
From January to June, Brazil exported USD 49.8 billion to China (an increase of +5.9% over the same period last year) and imported Chinese goods worth USD 25.5 billion (a decrease of -8.8%).
The Brazilian export basket continues to be concentrated in basic products, with lower added value. Three of them, soy, oil and iron ore, accounted for 80% of the entire volume shipped to the Chinese market.
With an increase of 13.8%, soybean exports totaled USD 23.1 billion, with a share of 46% of total exports. Oil revenues totaled USD 8.7 billion (+7.93%) equivalent to a 17% share of Brazilian exports to the Chinese market.
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The third most relevant item in the export basket, iron ores, recorded revenues of USD 8.3 billion, with a drop of -6.67% and a share of 17%.
Another highlight in sales to China was beef, despite the -29% retraction in imports, caused by the embargo enacted by the Chinese government due to an atypical case of “mad cow” disease in February, in city of Marabá (PA). Chinese imports totaled USD 2.6 billion.
The export of cellulose grew +26.4% to USD 1.83 billion, with a share of 3.7% in the total volume shipped to the Asian country.
Brazil Exports to China Jump 35.6% and lead to record trade surplus
Unlike Brazilian exports, which are heavily concentrated in commodities, Chinese sales to Brazil exclusively involve industrialized products.
From January to June, the main goods shipped by Chinese companies were valves and tubes (USD 2.9 billion); telecommunications equipment (USD 1.65 billion); organo-inorganic compounds (USD 1.5 billion); other manufacturing industry products (USD 1.26 billion); machinery and electrical appliances exports were worth USD 756 million.
